Red and the Dead
by eruuum
Summary: Rachel Elizabeth Dare and Nico di Angelo haven't seen each other for 7 years, but now they've been reintroduced. Just when things were getting good for both of them, the Gods give them some news that no one would ever want to hear. How will they last?
1. Reunion

_Note: I imagine Nico to look like Tyler Blackburn, Rachel Elizabeth Dare to look like Emma Stone when she had her red hair, Percy to look like an older Logan Lerman, and Annabeth to look like Reese Witherspoon. _

"You really didn't have to do that… I'm fine the way I am." Nico di Angelo said in a hushed tone to the man sitting next to him on the couch.

"It's what cousin's are for! I'm sick and tired of seeing you traveling all the time. I'm sure you'll love it here in Manhattan! You're single and twenty-one, you'll have the time of your life." The other man laughed and patted Nico on the back.

"Really, Percy, thank you." Nico smiled, his white teeth looking extraordinarily white against his olive skin.

"No problem," Percy Jackson smiled at his cousin, and picked up a few papers from the coffee table in front of him. "The apartment is on the 5th floor, it has two bedrooms, one bathroom, and nice kitchen and a living and dining room." He said, as he handed Nico the papers.

"It's really awesome, and it's down the street from here right?" Nico flipped through the papers, and analyzed it all.

"Yup, oh and you remember Rachel right? Rachel Elizabeth Dare?" Percy turned to his cousin who was now completely mesmerized into the papers and details about his new living arrangements.

"Yeah, kind of… Redhead, mortal, Oracle of Delphi?" Nico barely even remembered the girl from his childhood. He remembered seeing her around camp Half-blood, and he was pretty sure he had a little crush on her when he was 14, but she was 18 at the time and never noticed him.

"Yup, that's the one. Well she's pretty much Annabeth's best friend now, and she lives in that building too, on the top floor, in the penthouse." Percy sighed, "Oh yeah, since we're talking about Annabeth I should let you know that she should be here any minute, by the way…" Percy grinned and ran his hand through his dark hair and his cousin glared at him.

"Annabeth is coming? Now? I haven't seen her for what 7 years? You didn't even give me warning!" Nico stood up suddenly, and his 6'4" frame stumbled.

"Well it's not like you need to impress her, she is _my fiancée_ after all." Percy teased and raised an eyebrow.

"I know, I didn't mean it like that!" Nico smirked, "I just-" He was interrupted by a loud knocking at the front door. Percy stood up, and he was maybe half-an-inch shorter that Nico.

"You really have grown since I last saw you as a what, fourteen-year-old?" Percy grimaced as he walked towards the front door. "Annabeth!" Percy grinned as he let in a blonde woman, with piercing gray eyes.

"Why so surprised to see me? I told you I was coming over, Seaweed Brain…" She laughed and gave him a kiss, he blushed and shrugged.

"Not in front of guests!" He suddenly remembered Nico was standing next to the couch, unsure what to do but smiling nonetheless.

"Oh, I didn't even realize! Hi, I'm Annabeth, nice to meet you!" Annabeth extended her hand towards Nico, whom it seemed she didn't recognize.

"You're being a little too formal, like you don't even know who this is." Percy stifled back a chuckle as Annabeth's expression changed from cheery to confused.

"I do? Uh… Who is this, Percy?" She knit her eyebrows, trying to rack her memory for someone who looked like this.

"Hi, Nico di Angelo, pleased to meet you." Nico grinned as he extended his hand to shake Annabeth's. Her face went from surprised, to astonished, to excited so fast it was hard to tell which one she was experiencing. She suddenly jumped on Nico and gave him a huge bear hug.

"NICO! No way! I would never have been able to recognize you in a million years! You really have grown into a handsome young man!" Annabeth squealed in her enthusiasm.

"Ahem!" Percy coughed to be recognized.

"Oh, sorry darling," she let go of Nico and went to stand next to Percy. "I just can't believe this is little Nico, the awkward little kid at camp half-blood!" Annabeth blushed as she realized what she had said, but Nico didn't seem to mind.

"Well, I can't be 14 forever… well I can… but that's beside the point." He smiled at Annabeth, who was still debating if it was Nico or not.

"Oh wow, we have a lot of catching up to do Nico, but firstly… what are you doing in Percy's apartment?" Annabeth couldn't figure out what he could possibly be doing in Manhattan after 7 years.

"He's moving here, I found him an apartment in Rachel's building." Percy answered for Nico. Annabeth turned to Percy, smiling wide.

"That's fantastic! So I'm guessing you'll be seeing a lot of me because I practically live at Rachel's place." Annabeth carried on about how exciting it was for Nico to be back, but Nico wasn't really paying attention, he was focused on how he was going to live in such a big city. He was used to the small city life, and constantly moving. He had actually just came back to the mortal world from the underworld for a month, or two… he never kept track.

"Oh, and speaking of Rachel, she's coming over today and she's bringing movies!" Annabeth was reading a text message, "She's asking which movie to bring? Uh, I think I'll just call her." Annabeth was already putting the phone near her ear, and was waiting for Rachel to pick up.

"Hello?" Annabeth paused, "Hey, Rachel! Okay, so I think you should just bring a box of movies… Uh… just reach into your cabinet and pull out the first ten you see, we'll pick out of those!" She paused again. "No I do not want to watch any movies in French! ENGLISH would be nice!" Annabeth paused for a third time, and laughed, and then she turned to Nico and Percy and pulled the phone a little from her ear, "You guys want any specific movie? Odds are Rachel already has it." Nico and Percy both shook their heads and Annabeth put the phone back to her ear. "Yes, I said guys, as in more than one. Oh, wow, I forgot to tell you! Well we have a surprise guest! When you come over you'll get to see who!" Annabeth giggled, and she flipped the phone closed.

"She's going to be here in about twenty minutes. OH, and I forgot the bags of popcorn in the car! Hold on, I'll be back and get it. It'll just take a minute." By the time she even finished the sentence she was already out the door.

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare is coming?" Nico questioned Percy.

"Yeah, she'll be so surprised to meet you. I bet she won't recognize you, like Annabeth." Percy laughed. They stayed quiet for a minute or so.

"So, what's she like? Is she still like before?" Nico kept throwing questions at Percy.

"She's a lot like before, she's still very artistic, and she practically speaks sarcasm as a first language. Oh, and she's still the Oracle, she's really pretty now, too-" He was cut off by Annabeth bursting through the door.

"It's so cold out there! It's about to start snowing. Oh Gods, I am _NOT_ in proper clothes for snow." Annabeth moaned.

"That's weird, I'm pretty sure it's spring… Why would it be snowing?" Percy directed his question to no one in particular.

"Zeus is probably just in a bad mood." Nico suggested. They all agreed, but they couldn't help but have suspicions deep in their minds.

"So, Nico, where's your stuff?" Annabeth turned to Nico after some silence.

"Underworld…" He trailed off. "I'll just pick them up later, once I'm actually in the apartment." He grinned, and moved over on the couch for Annabeth to sit between him and Percy.

Annabeth suddenly pulled her phone out from her pocket and looked at the screen, "She's downstairs, so I'll go help her." Annabeth jumped up, and ran out the door. As soon as she opened the door, a cold gust of air entered the apartment, but she closed it just as quickly.

"Uh… should I hide or something?" Nico half joked, but inside was completely serious. He couldn't picture Rachel Elizabeth Dare now. He did a pretty good job picturing Percy and Annabeth before he saw them after seven years, but he just couldn't get a clear Rachel into his head.

Percy just laughed at Nico, and started to set up the DVD player.

Abruptly, the front door burst open and two girls entered holding a big box. Annabeth came in first, and a girl with dark red hair came after her.

Nico's jaw dropped as soon as he saw the second girl. She was absolutely breath-taking. Her hair was a deep-red, and down to her chest. Her eyes were a gorgeous green-blue, and her face was just perfect. Her bangs were in her left eye, and as soon as she dropped the big box on the table she flipped her hair to move them. Then she turned to Percy and Nico, and smiled.

"Hey Percy!" She smiled, and he just waved, without even removing his head from under the cabinet where the DVD player was being meddled with. Then she turned to Nico, and her face changed to a mystified look.

"Who's your friend?" She turned back to Percy, but kept Nico in sight. Nico couldn't help but snickered, Percy smiled, and Annabeth practically fell on the floor from laughter.

"I don't get it… What's so funny?" Rachel was getting angry now.

"Just take a guess." Percy spoke for the group.

"I don't know… some Italian male supermodel for me to photograph, or paint, or something?" Rachel realized she was wrong by Percy's loud burst of laughter and Nico's blushing.

"No, but you got Italian right…" Nico suddenly became so shy. He wasn't sure why, but he couldn't really speak.

"I don't know, Mario and Luigi had a third cousin?" Rachel sighed in defeat.

"You'll never get it, so I'll just tell you." Percy smiled. "But you'll never believe me." He grinned.

"Try me." Rachel challenged him.

"Okay… Get ready for it… it's… Nico di Angelo." Percy paused in between each word, for suspense. For a second Rachel had no response, she just tried to rack her memory for a Nico di Angelo. Suddenly she remembered who he was. And she let her jaw drop. She looked Nico up and down, and realized this was no joke.

"No way. Oh… Well… Hey Nico." Rachel stuttered. She wasn't sure what had come over her, she really was caught off guard.

"Uh… Hi." Nico smiled awkwardly at her, and he knew at that moment, that living in the same building with this girl was not going to be easy for him.


	2. Fifth Floor

_**Nico's point of view.**_

"So… I still cannot believe you're Nico di Angelo, AND you're moving into my building!" Rachel said for about the sixth time, not like I was keeping track. It didn't bother him that she kept repeating herself, I actually appreciated that I was being noticed.

"Yup, seven years later, here I am…" I let my voice trail off. Rachel was sitting on my left, and Annabeth was sitting on my right. Percy was directly across me, and he was really getting into the game of Monopoly we were playing.

"DAMN IT!" Percy yelled, and caught all of us by surprise.

"What happened?" Annabeth asked, worried out of her mind.

"Go directly to jail…" Percy read the card in his hand. Rachel and I burst into uncontrollable laughter at the spot, and Annabeth playfully punched Percy on the shoulder but a smile flickered on her face.

"Well, I'm sick of this game. Can we watch a movie now?" Percy suggested.

"You're only sick of it because you're losing!" I messed with him, and stuck out my tongue. Rachel began to laugh, and it made me smile to hear her laughter. I don't remember why, but I know I was smiling. I also remember Percy pretended to get offended.

"No! Never! No… Yeah…" Percy joked and caved in as he got up and made his way to the box of movies. Annabeth followed him, but went into the kitchen instead muttering something about popcorn.

"What is this? This isn't even in English!" Percy said as he flipped two movies in his hand and tried to read the backs of both of them, but gave up. He put them down and looked at Rachel.

"Oops." She shrugged and flashed him an "it's-not-my-fault-you-couldn't-decide-on-a-movie-earlier" smile. I laughed.

Percy just kept staring at her and she rolled her eyes, and got up. She walked towards him and started to dig through the box.

"How about this one?" She pulled out some movie with the word "haunted" on the cover and some picture of something that looked like a deformed face.

"Well, if you're sure you won't get scared." Percy nudged Rachel, playfully.

"Uh, do I have to remind _you _about your reaction when we watched a scary movie last! Annabeth and I had to turn it off because of you!" She stuck out her tongue and nudged him back. He just turned red, and stayed quiet.

"So you guys, I've got popcorn here! I know Rachel likes original, and Percy and I like buttered popcorn, so it's just you Nico. Would you like original, or butter?" She asked me.

"Uh… Original." I'm not sure why I picked original, I didn't like it… But I just felt like I should.

"Alrighty, you can just share this bowl with Rachel right? Percy and I just share a bowl of buttered." She smiled, and I nodded.

"You can sit on the sofa, with Rachel." She kept going, and I just kept nodding. "I'll be sitting on the floor with Percy. Oh Rachel, turn off the light? Okay, thanks!" She set the popcorn bowls on the floor, and stood next to the coffee table.

"Well, you don't expect me to move this coffee table by myself do you?" She put her hands on her hips.

"Wouldn't even think of it!" I smiled and jumped up, then grabbed one end of the coffee table and she grabbed the other.

"No, don't worry Annabeth, I'll do it!" Percy turned, once he was done putting the Monopoly game back into a cupboard.

"Okay, seaweed brain." She winked, and gave him a little peck kiss on the cheek. Then she went and picked up the two bowls of popcorn from the floor.

"You two love-birds!" I smiled at my Percy. I really was happy for him. I always thought him and Annabeth were cute together, even though I'm pretty sure the first time I met them Annabeth fell off a cliff and I annoyed Percy about it… Wow. I couldn't help but think about the rocky start Percy and I had.

"Okay, movies starting everybody shhhh!" Annabeth announced, even though no one was talking. Rachel came and took a seat next to me, and Annabeth and Percy sat at the foot of the sofa. Annabeth handed me the bowl of popcorn, and I offered it to Rachel. She gladly accepted.

After a few minutes, the plot began to show its creepy aspects. The house was haunted or something and the tenants had to escape or something… I wasn't really paying attention. I didn't get scared, so much time in the underworld and a guy just gets used to this kind of stuff. Apparently no one else in this room really visited the underworld much, they were all freaking out. Annabeth and Rachel would scream at all the parts where something would pop out. And Percy screamed a few times, too. I was so going to use that against him later.

Then suddenly they all screamed again and I felt something, something against my body. It was warm, and pressed up against me. I looked and I just saw red, a giant mess of red hair. Rachel was clinging to me, out of fear, but it was still something.

I don't know why, but her clinging to me sent chills up my spine. I mean, I admit, I've had my good amount of hook-ups, and girls pressed up against me, but this was a whole different feeling. She wasn't doing this out of lust, she was just in need of someone for a moment to make her feel better.

That's when I realized that nobody had ever used me to disregard their fears.

Just then, Rachel realized what she was doing. She straightened up, and looked at me apologetically, and I just smiled. She stayed pretty close to me though, just not clinging. Every time something scary would pop out she would squeeze my arm. I was pretty sure I was going to have nail marks etched into my skin by the end of the night.

After a good thirty minutes the climax took place. This was probably the worst part for all of us.

Rachel was almost to tears now, and Annabeth and Percy were definitely texting each other to keep their eyes from the screen.

_If she keeps digging her nails into my arm I think I might just bleed to death. _I thought to myself. So I put my arm around her. I felt her getting tense, but she loosened up. She actually found it more convenient. She just put her head in my chest whenever she got scared. I couldn't say I was complaining either. We went like this for a good fifteen minutes, until I heard a loud _THUD _from the window. I cocked my head to the right, and saw a bird just hovering by the window, and I could swear it was staring right at me.

_Move your arm._ The voice in my head thought.

Crap. How was I supposed to move my arm without her noticing.

"Uh… I have to pee." I announced. She just nodded and repositioned herself so I could get up.

I walked over to the bathroom and shut the door behind me. I turned on the light, and practically had a heart attack.

Sitting in the bathtub was Hermes.

"I saw you and the Oracle out there." He plainly stated. I was still speechless, and my mouth was gaping open.

"Oh calm down! I'm not going to tell daddy Hades! Trust me." He smiled. And I raised an eyebrow in distrust. He saw.

"I know, I'm mischievous and what not, but I'm not going to lie to you. The Oracle and you do what you want; I'm just warning you not to get Apollo mad." He shrugged and stood up. Boy was I glad I hadn't walked in on him actually taking a bath.

"Rachel and I are just friends. She was just scared and I was comforting her." I whispered. I didn't want them to hear me talking and think I'm insane or something.

"I know what was going on, I just don't think some of the other Gods," he coughed and I could swear I heard him say "Hades" under his breath, "would understand as well as I would." And with that he vanished.

"I'm insane." I said to myself. And I faced the big mirror on the wall. I turned on the sink, and splashed some water on my face, and looked up again kind of expecting him to be back, but I was alone.

I went back to sit next to Rachel, careful not to put my arm out again. _Woo, more nail puncture wounds for me. _I thought.

Finally the movie ended.

Once the credits started to role no one moved.

"Uh… are you guys okay?" I said out loud, getting pretty freaked out. I turned and saw Rachel had her eyes tightly shut closed.

"Do you want me to turn on the lights?" I offered, and she nodded her head vigorously.

"You guys are such babies!" I laughed as I walked over to the light switch, and as soon as I turned on the lights they all got up and proceeded as though they weren't afraid.

"Well, that was fun and all, but I think I'm scarred for life." Rachel stuttered over her words, and gave us all a shaky laugh. Annabeth gave a shaky laugh to go along with Rachel's. I guess it was something girls do.

Suddenly Rachel jumped, and screamed. Annabeth, Percy, and I just whipped our heads to face her. All I saw was her pulling her phone out of her pocket.

"Sorry guys, false alarm…" She gave us an innocent smile and read some message on her phone. "It's Apollo; he says I should probably start heading back home since I have to go to camp tomorrow. Some kids need quests." She put away the phone and looked at the door.

"Alright, well goodbye guys! That was fun!" She smiled and gave Annabeth a kiss on the cheek and started to make her way to the door, and then she turned around as soon as she reached it and locked eyes with me.

"Need a ride? I don't think you know where the building is, do you?" She smiled. I shook my head. I just realized she was right. I didn't know where the building was, or anything. I didn't have any things or even a car or motorcycle… I was screwed!

"Then come on!" She motioned me to follow her, and I obeyed. I turned to Percy and Annabeth.

"Thanks again you guys, I really don't know how to thank you enough."I didn't know what else to say, those were the first words to come out of my mouth. I hoped I didn't sound too sappy.

As soon as we closed the door behind us, I realized that Hermes may be watching and I'd have to be pretty careful what I did around Rachel.

"So, which floor do you live on now?" Rachel asked me to eradicate the awkward silence in-between us.

"Fifth." I answered, and I saw a flicker of fear play across her face. "What's wrong with the fifth floor?" I asked, curious now.

"Oh nothing…" She had enough of an ominous tone in her voice to strike a fear in the pit of my stomach.

"Please tell me!" I begged.

"There was… There was a murder… on the fifth floor…" She said slowly, almost in tears.

"A murder…?" I suddenly felt a pang of guilt flood my brain.

"Yeah… He was my best friend." She said, with that voice people have right before they're about to start crying.

"Oh… I'm so sorry…" I was such an idiot. Why'd I have to ask.

"It's okay… it's not your fault…" She said. And then we stayed quiet until we reached her car. She unlocked it and I climbed into the passenger seat, and she sat in the driver's seat. Once she started the car up the radio started to automatically play. It was some sad song about losing someone you love. _Of course. _


End file.
